Frequently Asked Questions

Anyone can use the app. There are no age restrictions. However, we do have recommendations for parents of children under the age of 16. If you use the app in the private area, the app and the use of the associated services are free of charge. Commercial companies and organizations conclude a license agreement with us. Further details regulate our Terms of use.

Sharing items with the app, specifically by means of a depot is always ideal when people already know and meet each other. Typical examples of this are: sports clubs, schools, kindergartens, families, friends, colleagues, fellow students, parishes, neighbors, districts, quarters, blocks of flats, etc. Regular encounters make it easy to hand over things. The existing social fabric ensures that objects are treated properly. After all, nobody wants to be known among acquaintances for not handling borrowed things sensibly.

A depot is a protected area in the cloud for managing things and the people who have access to them. You can think of depots as "virtual warehouses" because the items are neatly listed in the cloud - like on the shelves of a real warehouse - but in reality they are of course still with the owners. Anyone can create accounts. You can define the visibility of things and the access of people to the depot. This way you can control the size of your depot and the privacy of its users, the depot members. As a member of a depot, you decide with the help of offers, which things you share when and in what way with other depot members. Or you use things from other members yourself by booking their offers.

Via the visibility of a depot you determine the access of depot members and the visibility of the things in it, more precisely the offersthat the depot members create. You select this setting when creating a new depot. You can change this setting until the first member has joined your depot. After that, not anymore. You can choose from these three visibility settings:

Private depots are the best solution if the members of a depot want or should keep to themselves. From the outside, neither the depot itself nor the things offered in it are visible to outsiders. Only depot members can see them. This could be the depot of a school class, for example. Children can lend toys, books, DVDs and clothes to each other here. When a parent or teacher opens the depot, that person determines who receives an invitation. The room in which the children act is protected.

Semi-public depots are suitable if you want to address a larger and at the same time predetermined group of people as depot members. The depot itself and the offers published in it are visible to the outside world. So the offers advertise the depot. Outsiders can then apply for Depot membership. The owner of the depot then decides on the admission of a member in each individual case. For example, if the residents of a village community want to share garden equipment, tools, etc., they will only accept applications from residents of the village. Other applications are rejected because the depot description states that the depot is only intended for villagers.

Public depots are useful if many people are to be addressed for the use of things without any restrictions. Here, too, both the depot itself and all the offers in it are publicly visible. If you are interested in accepting an offer, simply register as a member of the depot. Membership is effective immediately. There are no exams. This is useful, for example, for an organisation that offers cargo bikes for rent in the city and wants to reach many customers. The bookings for the cargo bikes are then made via the app.

You can use the app without opening a depot yourself. The prerequisite is that you have been invited to a private depot or joined a semi-public or public depot. Then you can see the things that are offered there, and book them.Of course, if the depot provides for this, you can also offer things yourself.But you don't have to do that either. Many of our users use the app without operating their own depot or offering things themselves.

First, you select the items you want to share with others or keep permanently. You can then easily register these items with the app. Take a photo of the item, give it a name, and add a short description and the year it was built. That's it. Your item is now part of what we call THE OTHER INTERNET OF THINGS and you can share it with the members of the depots you belong to.

If you want to win others over to Kleine Tat, you can order Kleine Tat-tags and label your things with them. This way, others will become aware of our initiative for change towards sustainable action. The tags also make the app easier to use, because scanning a QR code will take you and other users to the item's offers in a flash. But again, you don't have to order tags. The app works without them, too.

As a member of a depot, by creating offers you decide which things you share with the other depot members, when and in what way. From the list of your available things you select the item you want to share with others and create an offer for it. An offer is always valid only for a previously selected depot. You describe the period in which your offer is valid and whether you offer free of charge (lend) or for a daily fee (rent). Of course, you can offer the same item in different depots at the same time, even at different conditions. A calendar gives you and the interested parties a quick overview of the availability of the offered item.

By clicking on an offer and booking the item. To do this, you must be a member of the depot for which the offer was created. If this is the case, you first create a request for the item, specifying the day or period when you need the item. This is done quickly with a few clicks. You can also send a short message to the owner via messenger and promote your request or suggest details for the transaction.

The owner receives your request and can accept or decline it. In general, your request is accepted and the booking is made. The booking is then also noted in the calendar. Should you occasionally receive a rejection, that is also okay, because there may be reasons why the owner, despite his offer, does not want to share the object. That you then accept this without protest is very important for the interaction with each other, because we ensure with the app that the owners of things have full control at all times. You can read more about this in our terms of use.

With each booking, an individual chat is opened in our messenger, which connects you with the owner. In the chat you will see, among other things, the current status of your booking. You can also use the chat to agree on the details of the transaction. For example, when you can pick up or return the item. The chat will still be open when you finally use the item, so you can quickly ask a question about its operation. Once the item is returned, you can archive the booking and the chat will be closed.

At the moment this is not planned. Please discuss beforehand how you will deal with damages. For example, by agreeing in the depot community to repair them together. Even if this happens only very rarely, you can also use the app to be prepared for such cases. For example, if you share a car trailer with 10 families, you each pay $3 per use (= rent). With that you pay the inspection, the car insurance, due repairs and the said damages as well as useful extensions and wear and tear. If there is money left over, you can consider sharing other things or you can celebrate your contribution to environmental and climate protection with a small depot party because a few trailers have not been produced because of you.